England vs Pakistan, 1st Test, Trent Bridge 29th July 2010

[Silly Deep Cover]

Originally Posted by Fatslogger

Poor Danish has bowled far too many pastries this game.

Oh, I get it. Hahahahahahaha.

[square leg umpire]

Talking of Danish how could a spinner of his experience suddenly forget how to bowl?

[Psyduck]

I can't help feeling that England should already have this game won after reducing Pakistan to 47-6 in their first innings. That said Matt Prior played very well today to consolidate England's position of dominance and Broad and Anderson were excellent with the new ball. Hopefully they can polish things off in style tomorrow morning.

[Psyduck]

Originally Posted by square leg umpire

Prior should be in the top 6 as a wicketkeeping all rounder, allowing England to play 5 bowlers.With the 6 batsman strategy Prior is put at no 7 which is silly. This was the original idea for picking him since there are better glovemen about. They should bat him in the top 6 or pick a specialist glove man for the lower order.

Do you really think replacing Prior with Foster would improve the England team?

[Fatslogger]

Originally Posted by Psyduck

I can't help feeling that England should already have this game won after reducing Pakistan to 47-6 in their first innings. That said Matt Prior played very well today to consolidate England's position of dominance and Broad and Anderson were excellent with the new ball. Hopefully they can polish things off in style tomorrow morning.

They pretty much already have won this game. I don't think letting Pakistan get another 120 or so runs for the last 4 wickets was all that abysmal (although it sounds like the bowling at Gul this morning was a bit weak). Our tail put on a few runs today, after all.

[Josh]

Originally Posted by square leg umpire

Prior should be in the top 6 as a wicketkeeping all rounder, allowing England to play 5 bowlers.With the 6 batsman strategy Prior is put at no 7 which is silly. This was the original idea for picking him since there are better glovemen about. They should bat him in the top 6 or pick a specialist glove man for the lower order.

Today's innings showed the advantage of having a batsman as good as Prior as low as No.7. It's a light wash of the old Gilchrist effect; he could easily have batted a place higher, but his impact was greater at 7, either hitting out of a crisis or tormenting already tired bowlers. Of course we don't have the calibre of bowler to take a four-man attack for granted as that Australian side did, but the only realistic option as a bowling all-rounder is Bresnan (or possibly Rashid on a turning pitch), and at the moment they're deciding to do without him. We should find out pretty early in the Ashes Tests whether that is a wise policy.

[beefy]

Originally Posted by square leg umpire

Prior should be in the top 6 as a wicketkeeping all rounder, allowing England to play 5 bowlers.With the 6 batsman strategy Prior is put at no 7 which is silly. This was the original idea for picking him since there are better glovemen about. They should bat him in the top 6 or pick a specialist glove man for the lower order.

It'd be madness to have Prior at 6 and a bowler at 7 unless we have a decent allrounder who's capable of batting there, which we currently do not. Swann and Broad are both short of form, Broad particularly seems to be losing the promise of being a batsman capable of being in the top 7, for now at least. Bresnan isn't a number 7 either and given we've some question marks over form of Cook, KP and possibly Trott as a number 3 it's far too risky to play a batsman short.

[Midnight]

Pakistan well short of batting class. Well done to Prior who took advantage of conditions when the ball goes soft and scoring becomes much easier. Pakistan did well against the top order but faltered later on. When you concede a big lead though you're rarely going to win a match. They can't afford the luxury of excluding Younis and Yousuf.

[Long Off]

Originally Posted by Midnight

Pakistan well short of batting class. Well done to Prior who took advantage of conditions when the ball goes soft and scoring becomes much easier. Pakistan did well against the top order but faltered later on. When you concede a big lead though you're rarely going to win a match. They can't afford the luxury of excluding Younis and Yousuf.

Midnight, England are very good team. Way better than us atm. We'll come good and I think it will take at least two years for our players to mature into decent cricketers. We had a team of the century for a while It's gone, but I still think we are heading in the right direction. Pakistan's current bowling unit are also probably the best bowling unit I have seen for the past year. Their batting sucks..but Englands is more solid than ours...We're rebuilding and it is going to take a while. Personally, I like this stage.

[Chin Music]

I still have a few doubts about the England top order. Cook has his demons, Trott hasn't nailed the number 3 spot by any means yet and KP is of course having his problems, though in fairness Trott was unlucky that innings to get a grubber and KP was starting to look something like his old self before that inside edge. Will need to see a more comprehensive performance with the bat from these guys before this series is out.

Kudos to Prior. Like others on here I was getting annoyed with his taking the single on the first ball in his 90's but that was a very good knock from him particularly when he came in under a fair bit of pressure. The 3 wickets taken last night will have knocked the stuffing out of the Paks completely and I expect the innings will fold by lunchtime.

[luckyluke]

Something will have gone very badly wrong either with the game or my post nights kip if it's still going by the time I get up.

Can anybody answer this before then..when was the last time England won a test thanks to tons from only numbers 6&7?

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by Long Off

Midnight, England are very good team. Way better than us atm. We'll come good and I think it will take at least two years for our players to mature into decent cricketers. We had a team of the century for a while It's gone, but I still think we are heading in the right direction. Pakistan's current bowling unit are also probably the best bowling unit I have seen for the past year. Their batting sucks..but Englands is more solid than ours...We're rebuilding and it is going to take a while. Personally, I like this stage.

I agree, though their top order is a bit problematic. Trott has looked a bit vulnerable since the SA tour and Cook and Strauss are not looking super solid atm. KP has been out of sorts for some time. The Pakistani attack is very good in these type of conditions but the jury is out when there is less assistance and the tracks are flatter. Asif has been known to taper off badly when the shine wears off, while Gul has some horror days. In the three tests they've played during this English summer, they've enjoyed very bowler-friendly conditions.

[Minor Maggie]

Not many there today. Sadly that will be down to the cost of tickets for today and the fact that the Pakistan batting is so brittle!

[Chin Music]

Prior gets a touch of the Akmal's there, lucky there was no nick!

[Minor Maggie]

Sky reckon 6,000 are due today. Had it been £25 for a ticket today I reckon you'd have double that in.

[Aidan11]

I meant to post this yesterday and it may have already been asked, but apart from Alec Stewart, who was the last English keeper to get three test centuries?

[Minor Maggie]

I'm guessing Knott.

[Aidan11]

I was too.

[Minor Maggie]

So am I right?

[Lizzy]

Wicket for Jimbo.